As the holiday season rolls around and many of us are cherishing time with those we love, families separated by incarceration continue to face barriers when trying to maintain a sense of support and connection with their loved ones.

The harm of incarceration ripples beyond each person serving time away from their family and community. The decision to incarcerate individuals and separate families directly impacts the lives, minds and futures of those on the ‘outside.’

Children with an incarcerated parent are particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of such a painful and traumatic experience. At a young age, 2.7 million children across the U.S. are forced to navigate the experience of a parent’s incarceration, conservative estimates show. That number expands to more than 5 million when we consider not only the children with a parent currently in prison, but also those whose parent was incarcerated in the past. The impacts of incarceration run deep across communities of color in the U.S. with 1 in 9 black children and 1 in 28 Latino children having experienced a parent’s incarceration. Continue reading >>>